With house prices falling on one hand, and rising food prices and energy bills digging deeper into our pockets on the other, it’s little wonder that one in five families are planning to put off this year’s annual holiday, according to Mintel. But there are plenty of ways to cut back the cost of your yearly dose of sunshine without having to cancel it altogether.
Firstly, don’t pay for packages if you can put together the same trip for less yourself. I once halved the cost of a Cape Town tour by contacting the hotel direct, booking my own flights and then booking activities from the tour company’s brochure through a local travel agent on arrival. This won’t always work, but for the sake of a few calls and some time online it’s worth doing the comparison.
If you still decide to go with a package, book early if you can; Trailfinders.co.uk reckons 11 months before you travel is the best time to get the cheapest deals. Book extras such as airport parking – operators near the airport who then ferry you into the terminal are a good bet – as early as possible to secure the biggest discounts. And if you can, avoid school holidays, as these are inevitably more expensive.
You can also make significant savings on travel insurance. If you don’t travel often, single-trip cover makes sense, but for regular travellers an annual policy will work out much cheaper and is more flexible if you need to change the date of your trip. Shop around using a site such as moneysupermarket.com and do make sure you are not paying twice – for example, some bank accounts come with insurance that only needs upgrading for sports such as skiing.
Finally, consider your destination. Thisismoney.co.uk says 51% of us choose either France or Spain, and only 13% the US. But with the pound now buying fewer euros than ever, Europe is painfully expensive for British tourists. On the other hand, with sterling buying nearly two US dollars (around 5% below the recent all-time record), now’s a great time to visit places such as North and South America or even the Caribbean.